The little helicoptertouched down with the Perseverance rover in 2021.
This reminds us that space exploration is still difficult to do.
But Ingenuitys three years on Mars proved that powered, controlled flight on Mars was possible.
Artist’s depiction of Mars Aerial and Ground Global Intelligent Explorer (MAGGIE), which NASA is currently considering for a future mission.Image: Ge-Cheng Zha
The first landings on the Moon were static.
In 1970, we had thefirst soft landing on another planet, Venus.
The first robotic sample delivered to Earth from the Moon.
A view of Ingenuity on Mars.Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
And the first robot rover to drive around another body (also the Moon).
Venus was visited by a dozen static landers between 1970 and 1985, and never again.
The European Huygens spacecraft then landed on Titan, the moon of Saturn, in 2005.
An aerial view of Mars captured by Ingenuity on April 25, 2021. Taken from a height of 279 feet (85 meters), the helicopter managed to spot the Perseverance rover below (very top left of image).Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
It wasnt the first spacecraft to fly.
But Ingenuity had control, cameras, and connectivity.
It took photos of its rover and of Mars from an entirely new perspective.
It commanded the worlds attention and captured our hearts.
Ingenuity was audacious, original and completely new.
Meanwhile, Perseverance also took videos of Ingenuity flying in the air.
Nothing like it had ever seen before.
Future flights
Ingenuity had a rough ride getting there, however.
The entire Mars 2020 mission (of Perseverance, Ingenuity and their transport systems) was sudden.
And Ingenuity wasnt included onboard at first.
It added extra complexity, cost, risk and new failure modes.
Ingenuity wasnt intended to last for very long.
It was designed to prove helicopter flight in the thin Mars atmosphere.
It targeted five short flights over a month.
Much of its success was aided by the communication data pipe that now exists at Mars.
The next interplanetary rotorcraft will be theDragonfly mission to Saturns moon Titan.
It will be a very different from Ingenuity.
It will weigh about a ton and fly with eight rotors.
It is a huge vehicle designed to fly in Titans thick atmosphere.
The future that Ingenuity has opened up for us is exciting.
Kevin Olsen, UKSA Mars Science Fellow, Department of Physics,University of Oxford.
This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
NASAs Mars Rover Captures a Giant Dust Devil Swallowing Its Friend
Mmmm, dusty.
